Hasina hooked on fishing as she goes out for a breath of fresh air amid virus blow

In times of the coronavirus outbreak, Sheikh Hasina has slightly tweaked her routine. Her early morning walk now comes with a twist. The prime minister enjoys the sportsman’s thrill of the hunt - she goes for fishing in the Ganabhaban lake.

Hasina shed light on her morning chores in the Q&A session in parliament on Wednesday.

The refreshing disclosure was induced by the Jatiya Party MP Fakhrul Imam.

He asked her, “After getting up in the morning children look for their mothers, young men look for their wives. And when I look for my mobile phone after getting up, my mother looks for the broom (to show her disapproval). So, what does the prime minister look for?”

With a smile darting across her lips, the leader of the House responded: “I look for my prayer rug. Saying my prayers is the first thing I do after waking up. I recite the Quran after that. Then I make my own tea… if my younger sister (Sheikh Rehana) is there, she does it. Now Putul (daughter Saima Wazed Hossain) is here. Whoever wakes up first makes it. We do our stuff.”

“Before that, I make my bed. Then I read books. And now, in these days of coronavirus, I go out for a bit of morning stroll. But there’s something else I do of late, I’m not sure what’s going to happen if I say it,” Hasina laughed.

“There’s this lake at the Ganabhaban, Honourable Speaker. When I go for a walk by the lake, I sit with a fishing rod and catch fish too.”

Egged on by the candid revelation, Fakhrul quoted Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as saying, “You do a job. The poor farmers and labourers provide your salary. Your family run on their money, my car runs on it too. Please be respectful when speaking about them, they are the owners.”

“We all know whose words these are. My question is - does this government still have faith in these words?” he asked.

Hasina drew on the lessons she had received on being courteous as she attempted to answer him.

“We also have our full faith in those words, for we are inspired by the ideals of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. We‘ve been taught along those lines since our childhood days.

Hasina continued: “My father taught me to speak to a rickshaw-puller with respect, to call the driver of the house driver sahib. And those who worked at our home should not be called servants or be given orders. When we need to ask them for something, we need to do so by being courteous and respectful.”

“I may be the prime minister but when I need some help from the little girls who work at my home... I ask them - ‘could you please get me a glass of water?’ We always maintain these manners. This is what my father taught us.”

“Everyone gets equal respect from us. Rather we pay more attention to those who have little,” Hasina said.